The former Curator of Archaeology of the National Museum in Washington, Neil M. Judd, had to solve many mysteries in his position. One was the puzzle of the Cicada Whistles, which came from Missouri, Virginia, and North Carolina. These surface finds were identical in size and made colored clay in two-piece molds. It is still a mystery if they were made by prehistoric Indians or contemporary commercial groups.

Beneath the tilled farmland of North Carolina lies the secrets of a Native American civilization in the area long before the arrival of the British. With the help of modern archaeologists, researchers are finding clues to these Carolina Indian villages.

Matt Saunders has been going to Belize for years. He regularly brings high school students with him and with their help has found many priceless Mayan archaeological treasures. From Mayan inkwells to rings with new Mayan words that were previously unknown.

Dr. Ashley White, East Carolina class of 1986, has traveled the world in search of archaeological sites, but his greatest achievement has occurred right in his own backyard. After a series of storms caused erosion on his family’s farm in Ocala, Florida, White discovered pottery and coins that point to occupation by conquistador Hernando de Soto.

Archaelogist Monika Truemper has been studying Greek toilets and bath houses to learn about bathing culture. According to Truemper, architectural remains reveal much information about the purposes of bath houses and challenges of keeping them running.

Brian Billman, assistant professor of anthropology, stumbled upon a twelfth century Anasazi crime scene in the Mesa Verde floodplain of southwest Colorado. Billman and a team of archaeologists discovered human bones of an entire community killed by cannibals. They suspect the community was raided over territorial conflict.

Clark Larsen, professor of anthropology, helped set forth the field of bioarcheology, which interprets behavior from the human skeleton. He is examining skeletons of the twelfth century Guale people who lived in coastal Georgia and Florida. The skeletons revealed information about disease, nutrition, fishing and agricultural practices.

The Duke immersive Virtual Environment, or DiVE, is a cyber-archaeology project funded by the Brazilian government and made for education and research, in collaboration with archaeologists at the University of São Paulo. The goal is for archaeologists to be able to experience a site without going there, and to have the ability to compare side-by-side different stages in an expedition.

Archaeological excavation and research reveal new information on Virginia’s early potting industry. The wares of Virginia potters started to appear along eastern coastal shipping routes, suggesting a change in the marketing of pottery. Excavated earthenware show a more common German form and have been documented among the wares made by the Moravians in North Carolina in the eighteenth century.